


Hello, Nice to Meet You We Hatched the Same Day

by NotLeanna



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: POV Max Evans, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-07-10 05:28:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19900564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotLeanna/pseuds/NotLeanna
Summary: The day they met he felt real for the first time in his life. Nothing he had ever experienced came close to that visceral sensation, the overwhelming knowledge that they were made of the same stuff. It had been so powerful his knees almost gave out, so intense it actually knocked Isobel off her feet.He was eleven. It was the first day back at school after Summer break.Or what happened when Michael came back to Roswell.





	Hello, Nice to Meet You We Hatched the Same Day

**Author's Note:**

> The title is taken from "Crazy Ex-girlfriend"'s song "Hello, Nice to Meet You" series 4 episode 8.

The day they met he felt real for the first time in his life. Nothing he had ever experienced came close to that visceral sensation, the overwhelming knowledge that they were made of the same stuff. It had been so powerful his knees almost gave out, so intense it actually knocked Isobel off her feet. 

He was eleven. It was the first day back at school after Summer break. 

*

“Max, I feel weird,” 

He nodded; he had been feeling weird all morning, too, as if someone he should know were right there, just out of sight. “Yeah, something’s up,” he tugged his sister to their next class, away from that other totally  _ alien _ pull. His heart was beating too fast and they were expected in maths class. 

“Max…”

“Don’t worry Iz, we’ll figure it out later, come on.”

Nothing had changed over the Summer, nothing ever did in Roswell. Nothing except for him - and his sister - he was getting less and less human every day, his powers were something alive under his skin and even though he was trying hard to ignore them, he was starting to think it was a battle he was going to lose. He turned around in his usual seat near the wall, there wasn’t any new face. Liz’s smile was still the most bright thing in the room, Valenti and Alex Manes were plotting something in the back, and Isobel’s group of worshippers/friends was trying to get her attention. All was normal. No one was looking at him as if he had developed green antennas over night. Still, he had never felt more aware of his difference. He knew Isobel was feeling the same and somehow he was also sure there was somebody else attuned to all of that. And they were near. 

In the background the teacher was doing a quick roll-call; he almost missed his name.

“Someone’s watching us. An alien.” Max said once the class ended and they reached the outdoor cafeteria, pointing at somewhere near the farthest corner of the area with a hint of his head. The idea that someone in their school knew what they really were was petrifying, they were concretely risking exposure on a day that should be all about  _ where did you spend your Summer _ and _ I love your new haircut _ . Not exactly the first day back to school he had expected that morning. 

“Yes. He’s scared, I can feel him,” Isobel started towards the point her twin had indicated, heading straight to the new alien in town. So typical Isobel.

“Stop, Isobel!” The boy whispered, taking his sister by the wrist. So typical Max. “We don’t know them, they could be…” 

“Of course we do. Can’t you recognize him?” Max closed his eyes and  _ yes! _ This other alien was scared like Isobel had said, but he was also studying them and excited and relieved and so very familiar. “There he is.”

Max followed his sister’s finger and there he was. A shock of curls and an intent expression, a boy about his age was hiding behind one of the pillars. This time he didn’t have the time to stop Isobel from running to him. He was right behind her.

“You’re here!” When Max joined them she already had her arms around the new boy, who seemed frozen in place. “We missed you so much!”

“Izzy…” 

“What? He’s our brother, Max! He’s here! How did you find us?”

“I didn’t,”

Max had never seen a happier Isobel; she was all over the boy, holding him tight and kissing his cheeks. He looked overwhelmed and for the briefest second the image of terrified eyes and heavy breathing flashed through his mind, a long lost memory.

“Let him breathe, Iz. You’re scaring him, it’s been years.” Years of wondering and longing and the constant feeling of something missing, the longest years. Humans had given him and his sister a home, but they had also taken their family away. “Hi, I’m Max Evans and this is Isobel, my sister.” 

Now that Isobel’s harms weren’t around his neck anymore, the boy seemed a little more at ease, though Max couldn’t blame his twin for taking his hand in hers, he did look like someone ready to bolt. 

“Michael Guerin,” It lasted an instant and it went away as quickly as it had come, but for a moment Max wanted to deny it. Michael Guerin was not the boy’s name, his name was - 

Michael locked his eyes on Max, and he was sure the other alien knew what he was about to ask him, “I’m sorry,” he shook his head, “I don’t know your real name either, man.”

Max shrugged, just a bit disappointed. He liked to be Max Evans, pretended human, it was just that lately the role was starting to feel more and more restricting with every passing day. 

“We’ve missed you, Michael,” Isobel repeated, squeezing his hand, and for the first time the boy smiled. 

“I can’t believe you’re here,” Michael said, a wild, freeing laugh escaping his lips. His eyes were shining with tears, though. “I can’t believe you’re alive!”

And then they were hugging again, all three of them, because it had been four years and they had been scared for a lot of reasons in that long period of time, but their separation was what had been keeping them up at night the most.

“We didn’t want to leave you behind,” 

“Yeah, Max kept trying to run away to get back to you, but I was so scared to lose him too I got him to stop.”

Michael shook his head; maybe he didn’t believe them. “Where have you been? I only have this memory of you being dragged away and then this empty feeling, but I can’t really place it.”

“We’ve been here in Roswell this whole time, you?”

“Here and there. I’ve been moving a lot,” Michael started looking around and retreated behind the pillar, asking in a whisper, “What’s your plan? Being alone and all I didn’t manage to do much, but I do have something. I can share what I’ve been working on, if you’re interested.”

“Plan?” “Working on what?” Max and Isobel asked him at the same time. 

“To leave Earth,” Michael explained as if the twins were two dumb toddlers, “and go home. Currently I’m trying to extend the frequency of a radio I stole. I know I can’t reach our planet, but maybe I can get the signal intercepted from who’s looking for us and give them directions or something.”

“You’re working on an alien radio? Like E.T.?” Max winced at Isobel’s tactless remark, sometimes she couldn’t really help herself.

“Look, I know it doesn’t seem much but finding the pieces I need is not easy and I can’t work on it everyday. But now that I’m closer to the crash site and where they found us, I think I can speed up the process, maybe find something useful, something ours.”

“You want to go back there?”

“Don’t you? Aren’t you curious?” They were - how could they not be - and it surely showed on their faces because Michael pressed on, “Look, we can go this afternoon, after school. Now that there are three of us it will be a thousand times simpler!”

“We can’t. We have to ask our parents first.” 

“Parents?” Now, it was Michael’s turn to look surprised. 

“Yes, they won’t let us run around the desert alone. Are you sure yours will be cool with it?”

“I don’t have parents; I’m in foster care.” Michael paused for a moment, apparently lost in his thoughts and Max looked at Isabel hoping she’d have the words he was suddenly missing. He had feared brutal death, horrific scientific experiments, but something as mundane and human as foster care? That had never crossed his mind to be afraid of. “Were those people your parents? The ones who took you from the group home?”

“Yeah, the Evanses,” Max confirmed and Isobel agreed, “Mom and Dad, yes.”

Isobel had always been closer to their parents, especially their mother; somehow she had been able to let them in in a way Max just didn’t seem capable of. He didn’t know how it worked or why his twin sister and he processed things differently, even though they shared a freakishly tight psychic link, but she had lost most of her memory prior the adoption, whereas he still had some of those. Meaning he still woke up in the middle of the night his heart breaking in his chest because his parents were taking him away from his brother.  _ Michael.  _ He didn’t know how to forgive them.

“Are they… are they good parents?” For some reason Max couldn’t really put his fingers on, Michael’s simple question felt loaded. 

“The best,” Isobel promised instantly as he shrugged, “They never bother us,”

“Good, that’s good,” Michael nodded, “you know, sometimes I worried that they weren’t, but no, it’s good. Still sucks that you can’t come to the desert with me.”

“Maybe if we ask -”

“Unsupervised? Max, they’ll never let us and you know it.” Isobel cut him off. She was right, obviously, it was stupid even thinking about it. “But you know what? You should come home with us after school. You can tell us what happened to you. We can compare powers,” she added in a conspiratorial whisper.

Michael laughed, “For that we definitely have to go to the desert!”

“Why? What can you do?” 

The bell rang as a big grin spread on the boy’s lips. 

It was time to go back to class and being human or maybe not quite yet. 

***

It was easy to slip away unnoticed from the school ground and run all the way home. Way too easy if you asked Max, someone should have been watching for kids like them who thought they deserved one more day of summer rest or had just met the only other living alien on Earth they knew of.

He had never skipped school before. 

It had been Isobel’s idea when it was clear that Michael wasn’t going to follow them back in and he had immediately agreed, he also wasn’t ready to leave Michael. He couldn’t help himself from worrying about the consequences of their rushed decision, would their absence be noticed? notified to their parents? They shouldn’t draw attention to themselves; it wasn’t something they could really afford, especially now with one more of them.

“We should have been more careful, someone might have seen us.”

“I cut class all the time, they don’t care.” Michael assured him, making Max even more worried. 

“And your foster parents? The teachers?”

Michael laughed, “Told you, they don’t care. I just have to show up, get a A on whichever test and that’s it. School’s stupid anyway, we’re already more intelligent than them all.”

“No, we’re not.” Max said, getting more and more confuse at every Michael’s word. “We’re average intelligent. Like normal kids intelligent.”

“Speak for yourself, Max,” Isobel cut him off and again took Michael’s hand in hers, “But that was before, right? Now that you’re here, you won’t skip school anymore, so we can be always together, right?”

Michael looked at her for a moment and then asked, “Which grade are you in this year?”

“Sixth,” said Max.

Michael nodded, “Yeah, I can do that. I’m sure I can arrange something.”

Isobel smiled, bright and happy, and then resumed tugging Michael towards her home.

“So, is that your power?” Max asked him, a trace of envy in his voice he hoped neither Michael nor Isobel would detect. A brilliant mind was an easy thing to handle and keep undercover; it was even useful and nice to have, not so much messing with everything elettric when you got a little bit too emotional. “You’re super smart?” 

“No, I’m not that smart. I’m just good with numbers and stuff.”

“What is your power, then?”

“Some form of telekinesis, I think, but I can’t control it very well.” Michael explained under his breath. “That’s one of the reasons I don’t like school, I’m always on edge, trying not to get angry or nervous and make something explode.”

Michael’s whispered confession worked like a spell on Max’s load of worries. He wasn’t alone anymore, there was someone else who was going through the same thing at the same time as himself. 

“Max is like that, too.” Explained Isobel, “But with electricity.”

“Cool,” Michael turned to him and smiled and then asked Isobel, “What about you?”

“At the moment I can get into people’s minds, like I’m in there with them as they keep doing whatever they’re doing, you know what I mean? But I’m pretty sure I can do more. I feel like I may be able to influence their thoughts, have them make me see specific memories. It’s really frustrating because I know I can do it, but It’s like I’ve forgotten how.”

“Yeah, that’s exactly how I feel.” 

“Me too.”

Being understood was a privilege, Max knew it since the day he had to tell his parents his first almost-truth. But at least Isobel had always been there with him, sharing every experience with him, every lie, with his exact same fear and wariness. He tried to imagine how it would be growing up so completely alone, without anyone to be one hundred percent himself with. It was a nightmare even for a day-light fantasy. 

It was as simple as that, he already loved Michael as fiercely as he had loved Isobel his entire life. That love, also, felt known, from another life. 

He sped up his pace and joined his siblings, enjoying for the first time the lightness of feeling exactly where he was supposed to be.

***

It was decidedly weird. It was the day after and Michael was now sitting in front of him - behind Isobel - tapping his pen on the desk and bouncing in his chair, making him almost motion sick. 

He was so happy. 

He also understood perfectly well why his sister couldn’t keep herself from turning around every five minutes or so, he had to suppress the urge to extend his arm and touch the other alien and make sure he was actually real and  _ there  _ the entire time, too. They had decided almost in unison - as it always happened with the two of them - that they’d flank Michael everywhere they went - or sit -, a physical and visual reaffirmation he was one of them now, always had been.

Max hoped the teacher wasn’t saying anything important, because, much like the day before, he wasn’t paying attention to anything human at the moment. He wondered he if he was ever going to be able to do it again.

Michael Guerin. Isabel had called him their brother and kept calling him that the entire evening,  _ What do you think is our brother doing? Tomorrow I want to get to school very early so we can stay with our brother and talk a little more. Do you think mom and dad will let Michael spend the night here? They have to, right? He’s our brother; _ but he was so much more.

Much than a brother or maybe less, they didn't really know how many families were on board of the crashed spacecraft; he had been up all night thinking about the last twenty-four hours and how they’d change his world. He’d be a friend, at least, of that he was sure; Max wasn’t like Isobel, it was hard for him make friends when every kid felt so distant, so different. A friend, finally. More than anything, though, he’d be a mirror.

He was so scared.

Scared because up until then it had been almost too easy to kind of ignore the tiny detail that was his alieness, but something told him it wouldn’t be so with Michael around. Now it was looking right into his eyes.

Would he be able not to blink? Not look away? 

At dinner he was going to ask his parents to let him go camping in the desert. 

They’d be happy he had finally made a friend and let him like they let Isobel go to her one hundreds pajama parties a years. 

Michael turned and asked him for a pen. 

That morning they had found him waiting for them outside the school building, and even though his eyes kept darting towards the roads, he had followed them in without suggesting to skip class again. He seemed more at ease now, even though he still gave off some serious nervous energy. Or maybe it was him, Max.

They had already drawn the attention of their classmates with their quick friendship apparently appeared from nowhere. Rumors were about to come and there wasn’t anything more dangerous for the three of them. 

They needed to come up with a story that didn’t involve the desert and their first days spent together at the group home. They needed to be ready to lie, deny they were family.

He gave Michael his favourite pen, hoping he could give him so much more.

***

It was the weekend and Michael was in his living room, sitting on the couch and talking about stars and planets and suddenly he feared it was the last time he was going to see him, disappeared as soon as he’d leave the house. That he would never fit in his life. That he would not let him. That it would be Michael who kept him out of his.

Isobel was beaming, too happy for thoughts of loss to cross her mind, so happy Max doubted she was even registering what Michael was talking about. He loved his sister more than anything in this or any other world, but one thing about her was that she stopped listening to whatever risked to upset her, as if she could simply willing the offending thing out of existence. 

It was something that made him crazy and envious at the same time. He didn’t know how to tune out everything unpleasant and focus on the here and now, even when the here and now brought him a long lost brother. He was a worrier. Max looked at Michael as he told them about his readings on the 1947 crash and how he had put together his - most probable - story with the scraps of information he collected over the years, and managed to move his hands about even if one of them was securely held in Isobel’s. 

Max didn’t know about stars, he couldn’t hear them sing for him as they apparently did for Michael. He didn’t let them. He was sure about one thing, though, like he had shouldered the protector role for Isobel he was going to do the same for his brother. Worrying for him was second - third - nature, and Michael was so different from the two of them, he didn’t hide, he didn’t cower under the fear of what was out there. It scared him more than anything else in his life ever had. He wasn’t going to lose him a second time, not to humans, not to the stars, not to Michael himself.

He had built a home for Isobel that let her forget scientists didn’t have a name for them, he was going to do the same for Michael.

Still smiling radiantly, Isobel turned towards him and grabbed his hand with her free one. Together they were something powerful, something monstrously beautiful; they all could feel it, the wild and foreign electric current that flew through their conjoined hands. It was a link more strong than blood. He hoped it’d be enough for them all. 

***

It took him almost a month of heavy convincing work, but at the end his parents did let him go to the desert with Michael. Isobel had passed on the opportunity, preferring to spend her time in other  _ less pointless _ ways. Michael had already been by himself both to crash site and to the desert and found nothing particularly interesting, but saying what they were doing was pointless was another of Isobel’s tactless exaggerations. 

Searching for a connection to their past was clearly important to their brother and, to be quite honest, it was to Max, too.

His father wanted to drive them and for the whole time he asked Michael all sort of noisy and personal questions, and Max wanted to die. Michael hadn’t told them, but it was clear he didn’t like their parents, rarely accepting his siblings’ invitation to join them in other part of their house that weren’t Max’s bedroom. 

He honestly couldn’t blame him.

As soon as Max’s dad left, Michael fished out of his backpack a map of the area so full of notes it was hard to see the original thing. He had seen his brother working on it, adding new details after every trip, scribbling down what he had and mostly what he hadn’t found.  _ You have to be consistent _ , he had explained one afternoon lying on his bedroom floor,  _ or you won’t ever see the patterns. Not finding anything is much as a clue as finding our spaceship. _

Max had laughed and Isobel had made a joke about spaceships waiting for them in the desert, same old same old. Even if it wasn’t. Even if the first time they talked to each other had been twenty-something days before. 

Michael was now showing him his latest additions, some complicated equations that should tell them how much they had walked the day they were found wandering in the desert and therefore the cave - they all agreed it had to be a cave - they all kind of remembered waking up in. 

Then he pointed at the area they were to cover that day, a blank triangle next to two red ones already full of Michael’s neat handwriting.

“It’s weird, don’t you think? Being here without Isobel. It feels wrong.” Michael said, as he picked up and shouldered his backpack.

“At least there’s me,”

“You’re right. Let’s go.”

After an hour of pointlessly wandering around, Michael sat down on a rock. It was clear they weren’t really making an effort. Max joined him, crossed legged on the desert dirt, “You’re right, it does feel wrong.”

“I think we’ll find it. If we look for real, I think we’ll find it today.”

“Yeah, me too. But…”

“Should we? Without Iz?”

Max sighted, a month of anticipation and begging his parents all ruined because of Isobel and the mall. They couldn’t do it without her, though; Michael was right about that.

“What should we do, then?”

Michael grinned and Max felt himself smiling, too. He knew what it was going to happen, how they’d spend the rest of the day, and for once he wasn’t worried; he was just so very excited.

“Practice?” Michael answered, and as the thought of being right was forming into his mind, Max saw some desert rocks explode in a cloud of dirt.

“Wow,” Max whispered, coughing a little. “Were you aiming at those rocks?”

“Almost,” said Michael, “my target was the biggest one. And I wanted to levitate it.”

They both burst out laughing. It was all so absurd; their life was the literal definition of absurd and for once, Max didn’t care.

They laughed until they were crying and out of breath, and then laughed some more because they were alone in the desert, closer than they had ever been to were they came from, using their powers openly and freely. Even better, they were being silly about them, something Max never thought he could be. And all because of Michael.

“Try that rock right there,” he said when speaking became an option again and pointed at another big rock a little further on the left. 

“What do you want me to do with it?”

“I don’t know, maybe fly it over here?”

Michael focused on the rock and after a few seconds of trembling and shaking it rose a few inches.

“Yes,” Max exclaimed, excited and giddy. Michael turned to him to flash him a proud smile and the rock skyrocketed into the sky.

“Oops,”

The two boys lift their gaze trying to spot the rock on its way down, but neither of them saw it.

“I think you’ve shot it into space,” Max said; he had been smiling so much and for so long his face was actually starting to hurt. 

“Yeah,” Michael nodded and then paused for a long bit. “I’m gonna take you, too, one day.”

“What?”

“You and Izzy. You’ve been so nice to me these past few weeks, inviting me over for dinner, and the other night when you let me stay with you. I don’t know how to thank you or give back, I guess, but I swear, one day I’m going to get us home. I know I can, I promise.” 

Max didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t sure it was something he wanted, leave Roswell for some nameless home. After meeting Michael and listening to his travelling projects, he had thought about it and it actually sounded like a nightmare to him. A proof that his fears of losing Michael were more than justified. But it wasn’t what caught the words in his throat. At the moment, what was leaving him speechless was the intensity of Michael’s promise. And the reasons behind it. 

“I know you can, Michael,” he assured him, because it was true; Michael was as smart as he was stubborn, if he said he would find a way out of Earth, that was exactly what was going to happen. Unless he asked him not to, he was also already extremely devoted to Isobel and him. “But you don’t have to give us space to thank us for a couple of dinners. You’re family; you think Iz has ever thanked me for like anything? We love having you around, I wish you could never leave.”

Another pause, longer this time. Michael was looking so intently at his backpack, Max almost expected it to float in the air. Or explode. 

Neither things happened, though; after a moment Michael looked up, his expression untroubled and open. “We should get back here, next weekend. I could use some practice. Maybe we bring something you can practice on, too.”

“Definitely. We should definitely do it.” 

  
  


  
  



End file.
